Press
Megaload Protesters Visit ODOT Office in Portland
DECEMBER 20, 2013 // PORTLAND RISING TIDE
Video by: Benji Vuong
On Friday, December 20, protesters paid a visit to the Oregon Department of Transportation office in Portland to demand that they stop permitting passage of the tar sands megaloads that Omega Morgan has been hauling through Oregon. Portland, OR, USA.
Before leaving, they left a voice message for ODOT.
Please Play: Museums & Random Acts of Public Music
AUGUST 17, 2013 // EXPERIMENTING IN MUSEUMS // SPOTLIGHT ON PRACTICE // MIKE MURAWSKI
By Mike Murawski. Photos by Benji Vuong.
As a museum educator, I enjoy the elements of random surprise and creative disruption that can creep into museum practice. Experiencing the unexpected, especially in the space of a museum, can be such a rewarding thing. Back in late July, I had such an experience here at my own museum as I walked up one morning for work and heard a piano playing … and it was coming from the Museum’s outdoor sculpture courtyard. As I rounded the corner, I was surprised to see a piano sitting right there outside the Museum. The person playing the piano was truly fantastic, and a small group of people had gathered to listen — I assume that most were walking across downtown when they were drawn in by the sound of the piano.
PianoPushPlay!: Taking music to the streets
AUGUST 16, 2013 // FEATURED, MUSIC, TOP // BRETT CAMPBELL
By Brett Campbell. Photos by Benji Vuong.
“Do you ever let the pianos outside”? Megan McGeorge asked the employee at Sherman Clay/Moe’s Pianos in Portland’s Pearl District. The Portland State University piano student was envious. The previous summer, just one block away on 13th and Burnside, she had seen a cellist playing for passersby and she longed for a more portable instrument so she could do the same. The Sherman Clay staff agreed to mount one of its “starter” pianos on a dolly, and that’s how McGeorge and some friends wound up pushing a piano down 13th avenue last summer, performing several times while walkers, drivers, bicyclers, even office workers in nearby buildings looked on in surprise and delight. Eventually, it put pianos at four locations last summer. PianoPushPlay! was born.